Automatic brake-releaser.



E. O. HENTSCHEL & W. C. HARTING.

AUTOMATIC BRAKE RELEASER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 19 1914- v Patented July 20, 1915.

l m X 0o ill" II? /1 "UNITE STATES A'r N'r orrICEgf f' EDWARD o.HENTSCHEL, oFcIncmNAT- ANDWILLI'AM e. HAR'II-NG, or nLMwooD PLACE, OHIO.

AU'roMA'rIc BRAKE-RELEAS'ER.

To all whom it may concern Be 11; known that we, EDWARD O. HENT=Hamilton and State of Ohio, and WILLIAM F. C.- HARTING, a citizen of theUnited States, and a resident ofElmwood Place, in

. the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio,

have invented certain new and useful Ims provements in AutomaticBrake-Releasers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, formingpart of this specification.

Our invention relates to air brake constructions such as are in usegenerally for controlling railway cars, and the object of the inventionis to provide means for automatically releasing the air brake, after thebrakes have been set by the action of the compressed air. i

In the ordinary construction in general use of railway cars, thecompressed air is confined in a cylinder secured underneath the car, andwhen cars have been uncoupled or any break occurs in the line, thebrakes are set and it is necessary to release the compressed air in thecylinder under each car to relieve the pressure from the pistoncontrolling the brakes. In the ordinary equipment, each cylinder isprovided with a relief valve for this purpose operated by a doubleacting lever which'can be actuated from either side of the car. Therelief valve is held'shut by the compressed air and in each case has tobe held open until the air is released. This takes time and as a resultthe starting of trains, usuallyfreight trains, is very seriouslydelayed, adding to the danger of blocking the line, while the operativesare frequently obliged to hang on to the side of the car, after thetrain has started, to hold open the valve, thus endangering their livesand increasing the dangers of operation.

It is the object of our invention to remedy these defects by thatcertain novel construction and arrangement of 'parts to be hereinafterset forth and claimed, in which a bleed valve is introduced into theescape pipe arranged to be held open automatically by the escaping airand to close by gravity when the air pressure is relieved.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of the airbrake cylinder w th our d ise m u t d t reon 2 Specification of LettersPatent,

Patented uly Application flied October 19, 1914. seriai'no. 867,275.

is acentral longitudinal section illustrating the ordinary'air releasingvalve with our.

mprovements applied thereto. Fig; 3 is a front elevation of the same,with the casing partly broken away. 7 Fig. 4; is a detailview showingthe method of applyingour valve 1 where the relief cylinder.

1' is a portion ofthe ordinary air brake reservoir, and tapped into thecylindereither at top or bottom is a relief pipe con-1 taining theordinary air release valve.

Since we prefer to merely insert our im= provement in an ordinaryair-brake bleed device, we have illustrated our improvements as merelyadded to the ordinary Westinghouse construction, and have adopted thelevers used in such a device for trippingour valve as will be apparent.In this ordinary construction, the coupling 2 is secured di rectly. intothe compressioh cylinder, and this coupling is provided with anupwa'rdlyextending screwthreaded portion 3 upon pipe. is at the bottom of thewhich-is screwed the'cap 4:. The cap 4 is formed with an air passage 5,'which fis closed by the valve. 6, seated at 7. The valve isIreturned toits seat when the air pressure is relieved byjthe coiled spring! 8mounted in a recess in the coupling and surrounding the depending stem9' of" the valve. The valve stem also extends upwardly at-lO, when it isacted upon by the lever 11 with the two arms 12 and 13. The lever 11 isseated in a slot'14 in the cap and engages on either side a pin 15,- 15,one of these pins acting as a fulcrum for the lever when the lever armon the same side of the pin is actuated. The lever arms 12 and 13 areconnected by links (not shown) to the sides of the car, so that fromeither side the lever can. be actuated. By pulling on the lever arm oneither side, the 'stei'n'lO'i's depressed, opening the. valve andallowing the air to pass out around the stem 9 through the air port 5.This is the ordinary and usualron struction, and it is evident that inorder to I, relieve the air, it is necessary for the oper- I toinaticvalve involving our invention. The" I releasing valve is mounted in asuitable easing s id e With a sere d ddepending stem 17 to screw intothe reservoir and with a coupling nut 18 to screw onto the couplingtube. From this casing 16 leads an air port 19 which is closed by thevalve 20. This valve 20 is pivotally mounted on the pin 21 secured inthe side walls of the casing, and the valve is raised, by the bell cranklever 22, pivotally mounted on the pin 23 also secured in the casing.One end of this bell crank leverv is provided with a pin slot connection2-1 coupling the same to the valve 20, and the opposite end of the leveris formed with a head 25 projecting under the lower end of the stem 9 ofthe ordinary valve. Into the opening through the stem 17 we prefer tofit a tube 26, with a beveled upper end 27 to direct the current of airtoward the valve 20.

It will be evident that this construction when the valve stem 9 isdepressed by the actuation of either of the levers 12 or 13, that thelever 22 will be rocked to raise the valve 20 into the position shown bydotted lines in Fig. 2. The instant this happens, the outrushing airholds up the valve 20 away from its seat. The compressed air in stantlyescapes through the port 19. As soon as the air has escaped and thepressure relieved, the valve 20 drops back to its seat by gravity, or ifdesired a spring can? be employed. In the event that the opening in theair brake cylinder 1 is at the bottom, we furnish a U-shaped piece ofpipe 28 so that the valve casing can be attached in an upright position.

With the use of our improvements, the operator has merely to give a pullto the lever 12 or 13, and the valve is dropped and held open by theescape of the air. He therefore does not have to hold the valve open.

As we have stated, we have illustrated our construction as a mereaddition to the ordinary construction, utilizing the valve stem andlever operating means to trip our release valve. Instead of using theold construction for this purpose, of course any suitable means can beemployed for tripping the relief valve and the same results will beattained. Our construction as illustrated, however, is especiallyadapted for utilization with the air release valve now in use, becauseit requires nothing but the insertion of the casing 16 between the oldvalve and the cylinder.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a device of the character specified, a casing having an outletport therein for escaping air, and an inlet port for escaping air, saidoutlet port formed in a side wall of the casing and a valve suspendedover the outlet port to close the same, said inlet port being, sopositioned beneath the valve that a slight movement of the valve willbring it into the line of the air escaping through the inlet portwhereupon the air will hold the valve open, for the purpose described.

2; In a device of the character specified, a casing having an outletport therein for escaping air, and an inlet port for escaping air, saidoutlet port formed in a side wall of the casing and a valve suspendedover the outlet port to close the same, said inlet port being sopositioned beneath the valve that a slight movement of the valve willbring it into the line of the air escaping through the inlet portwhereupon the air will hold the valve open, and means for tripping thevalve to bring it into such position, for the purpose described.

3. In a device of the character specified, in combination with the airbrake cylinder, a casing, an inlet port from the cylinder to the casing,an outlet port therefrom and a valve to close said outlet, the valvelocated in line with the inlet port, a bell crank lever coupled to saidvalve at one end, a spring controlled rod to actuate said lever to openthe valve, and a lever to actuate said rod from outside the casing.

In a device of the character specified, a casing, an outlet port forescaping air, a valve in the casing, pivotal means for mounting saidvalve in line with the escaping air whereby when slightly opened it willlie at one side of the escaping jet and be held open thereby, and whenclosed it will be subjected to the air pressure, and means for trippingsaid valve independent of the pivotal mounting means, for the purposedescribed.

EDWARD O. HENTSCHEL. WILLIAM F. C. HARTING.

WVitnesses EARL W. GRIFFIN, KATHERINE SMITH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

